2007: Inner City Press, headquartered in the South Bronx of New
York City, engages in investigations and journalism regarding human rights,
transparency, corporate accountability, community reinvestment, predatory
lending, environmental justice, fair housing, social exclusion and related
topics. Inner City Press covers (and where applicable is accredited media at)
the United Nations, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, banking and insurance
regulatory agencies, the Federal Communications Commission, and various courts.

The more recently formed Inner City Public Interest Law Center
engages in litigation and administrative advocacy around these issues, including
collaborating with or providing legal representation to other grassroots groups. Click here for some recent news about our work. Click here for a brief description of
some of our current campaigns --
some of the most recent of which are summarized on our Bank Beat page, and in our CRA Reporter (both are updated at
least weekly). In 2005, ICP is engaged among other things in a nationwide campaign
regarding banks' funding of high-cost fringe financiers. See, e.g., the 2004
announcement of SunTrust, in
response to ICP's comments, that it will cease such lending.

ICP was founded in 1987 in the South Bronx, by families who were in
need of housing, and undertook repairing
abandoned buildings to make that housing. From the beginning, the group published a
bi-monthly newspaper, Inner City Press / La Prensa del Pueblo.

As more and more people joined the ICP Homesteaders Association, the
group took on other issues of concern in the South Bronx and other low-income
neighborhoods: the difficulty of access to credit and financial services, disproportionate
exposure to toxic and hazardous waste, lack of accountability from government agencies and
elected officials, police brutality -- in short, injustice and exclusion.

One of ICPs main focuses is enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a
federal law enacted in 1977 to require banks to fairly serve low- and moderate-income
neighborhoods. The CRA is enforced by challenging banks merger and expansion
applications, documenting the banks failure to serve poor communities.

In 1992, ICP challenged an acquisition proposal by The Bank of New York,
based on that banks exclusion of the South Bronx and Harlem from its service area.
ICP prevailed: the bank expanded its service territory to include the Bronx and Harlem,
and, in 1993, committed $5 million in loans to the areas.

In 1994, after having discussed this precedent with other NYC banks which
similarly excluded the Bronx, but having seen few changes, ICP challenged the expansion
applications of five more banks. To resolve these challenges, two banks (Dime Savings and
NatWest, now Fleet) opened new bank branches in the South Bronx, for first new branches
here in twenty years. Two other banks (Marine Midland and Republic) opened new loan
production offices in the Bronx; the other bank (First Fidelity, now First Union)
committed $15 million in new lending to the South Bronx. These successes were widely
reported; ICPs work was profiled on ABC News Nightline program on April 10,
1995 (Transcript # 3621).

As word of ICPs successful enforcement of the CRA spread,
other community groups, and consumers, began to contact ICP for advice and assistance. ICP
began to collaborate with groups in other states on CRA challenges: for example, to Bank One, NationsBank
(now Bank
of America), First
Union, and others. To formalize this work, and ICPs emerging environmental and telecommunications advocacy (which
has included successful challenges to media mergers), in 1998 we founded the Inner City Public Interest Law Center
(ICPILC), with ICPs initial executive director becoming the general counsel of the
ICPILC.

In 1999, ICP won several more important CRA precedents. One involved the
investment bank Lehman Brothers, which sought to acquire the failing Delaware Savings Bank
with scarcely a CRA plan in place, and while being active in underwriting the
mortgage-backed securities of various subprime lenders, including Delta Funding, which was
sued by NYS authorities for predatory lending. After ICP's and DCRAC's comments, the
OTS encouraged Lehman Brothers to pledge $2.2 billion in low and moderate income lending,
and to identify and avoid predatory lending practices, including in the loan pools Lehman
does the underwriting for. Another joint ICP / DCRAC protest ended with GMAC
pledging $6 billion in low and moderate income lending. ICP advocates for the
appropriate application of CRA to Internet banks -- see ICP's Hot Issues page for more.